http://www.kgdarchitecture.com/html/ViewProject.aspx?PrID=97&order=1
03/12/2008
Good Karma
At first, Jeffrey Abramson of the Tower Companies seems too good to be true. When he told us he built eco-friendly buildings before LEED existed because it was the "right thing to do," we thought, "yeah, sure." But after sitting down with him in his North Bethesda office, and learning more about him from others, we realized Jeffrey isn't just talk. The Abramsons are one of the storied families of post-war Washington real estate. And for the last 35 years, it wasn't just the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Clint Eastwood who practiced Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ; so did Jeffrey, who flew to India for the Maharishi's funeral last month. For a long time, he's been trying to be not just green but to improve life through real estate.
He says his philosophy is not new age hocus pocus, but actual science: Maharishi Vedic Architecture to be exact, and that its principles are used in 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard, his 200k SF Rockville office building delivering in July, that is LEED-Gold certified. Jeffrey says he uses the principles in his own home and that they can influence everything from intelligence and health to good fortune (if buildings are Vedic, he says, they'll be more successful).
What principles make a building Vedic? Jeffrey cites four: orientation, proportions, placement, and natural materials. Here he shows us a model of the Kishomoto-Gordon-Dalaya designed Tower Oaks and points to a 200-room Marriott Renaissance ClubSport Hotel and high-end condo building that will be next door. He says the three building complex will be the world's largest commercial application of Vedic architecture.
Jeffrey shows us his desk, which he's been told belonged to F.W. Woolworth. We're not surprised to see a cup of green tea; we didn't peg him for a coffee drinker. Jeffrey says his interest in sustainable building was sparked not only by TM, but when he read that 40% of the energy use in America which causes pollution is created by office buildings. He thought: "If we're part of the problem, we can be part of the solution as well."
The native Washingtonian says he was "taught the family business at the dinner table." Albert ("Sonny") Abramson, still active in the company at age 90, started Tower in 1947, and partnered with Ted Lerner in building White Flint Mall and Washington Square. But it wasn't until 11 years ago that Jeffrey move Tower toward sustainable building. It was the first to go green downtown with the renovation of the Millennium Building on 19th and K in '99. They gutted the original '70s structure and added four new floors. Now the 235k SF building uses no more energy than it did originally. Tower purchases 71M kilowatt hours of energy per year from windmills, and according to the EPA is the largest purchaser of green energy in real estate, and only one of eight companies to be EPA-certified carbon neutral in the country.
09/13/2007
Tower II, Featured Project in AIA NOVA News BLAST (vol 1, issue 11)
Designed to meet USGBC's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold-level certification, the Super Class-A 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard has been designed by Kishimoto.Gordon.Dalaya (KGD), and is being co-developed by The Tower Companies and Lerner Enterprises. The Tower Companies is the 18th largest purchaser of Green Energy in the US, and the largest green developer in the Washington, DC area. Lerner Enterprises is Washington, DC's largest private real estate developer.
The Tower Oaks planned community was originally developed by The Tower Companies, and is located along Interstate 270 in Rockville, Maryland. The 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard building is part of a 600,000 SF, mixed-use complex consisting of an office building, a business-class conference hotel, a 75,000 SF spa and fitness center, and 200 ultra-luxury condominiums. 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard builds on the environmental-design precedent established by KGD and The Tower Companies with their award winning Tower Building, located in the same Tower Oaks development.
KGD designed the Tower Building, completed in 2001. The Tower Building was the recipient of the 2003 MD/DC NAIOP Award of Excellence for Best Suburban Office High-Rise, the 2002 TOBY Award for Best Green Building, and was featured in Big & Green Exhibition at the National Building Museum. Currently, KGD has begun design for Tower III & IV, the next phase of the Tower Oaks development. Tower III & IV will be a 427,000 SF Super Class-A office building complex designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification.
2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard, to be located at Tower Oaks Boulevard in Rockville, Maryland, has been designed to answer some of the most pressing concerns in America today, including rising energy costs, the imminent need to curb global warming through the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, the huge economic cost associated with 'sick building syndrome,' and the ability to enhance worker performance in today's competitive global market. As an industry, real estate consumes 40% of the electricity in the U.S., 30% of raw materials and is responsible for 40% of atmospheric emissions. Additionally, EPA estimates that people spend 90% of their time indoors. "The combination of these factors illustrates how developers can act as custodians of the built environment, play a major role in lessening the environmental impact of development and enhance worker health and productivity through industry-leading projects such as this one," said Marnie Abramson, a Principal of The Tower Companies.
Environmental benefits of 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard include the dramatic reduction of air pollution that may cause 'sick building syndrome' by removing 85% of airborne pollutants and replacing 100% of the air in the building every 55 minutes. Air quality is also positively impacted by the use of healthier building materials which do not emit toxic gasses. This building will also reduce energy consumption by 41%, water consumption by 48% and entirely satisfy the energy needs of the building from purchased Green tags representing 100% wind energy.
2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard changes the criteria companies use when choosing where to occupy their businesses. Businesses can now look at rent as an investment in their human capital, which is widely acknowledged to be a company's most crucial investment. This investment is maximized by renting in Green/Vedic buildings. Rent is only 8% of a company's total cost; about 80% of costs are employee-related. "2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard is designed to impact people in positive ways making them more productive, efficient and successful. Studies have shown that increasing employees' productivity through better thermal controls, day lighting, air quality and architecture of their work space can often lead to returns that exceed a company's annual rent expense, a concept we call 'Return on Rent,'" added Ms. Abramson.
Using the principals and technologies of Vedic Architecture, these developers complete the picture of health by creating work space that enhances productivity, creativity and success for tenants using defined architectural concepts of proper orientation, proportion and placement. This, in effect, transforms office space into a dynamic environment that can enhance a company's success, leading Tower and Lerner to believe they have created the healthiest building in Washington.
"People intuitively know that buildings affect us deeply and the best buildings are those that make us feel good, and at their highest can elevate your success. This broadens the possibilities for the buildings we choose to work in. That is what the Vedic approach brings to architecture. It offers our tenants high-performance space designed to promote a dynamic and rewarding work experience, fulfilling the very purpose of building buildings," stated Jeffrey S. Abramson, a Partner at The Tower Companies.
The Tower Companies and Lerner Enterprises have collaborated on numerous landmark developments over the past 30 years including: White Flint Mall; Washington Square at Connecticut Avenue and L Street, N.W.; White Flint North; Dulles 28 Centre and several others.
"Together The Tower Companies and Lerner Enterprises are changing the way buildings are being designed and what they can do for employees, corporations, and environments. From energy efficiency and design principles to on-property management, 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard will set a new standard in office environments," stated Mark D. Lerner, a Principal of Lerner Enterprises.
06/20/2005
"Tower II: Planned With The Maharishi in Mind"
Developer Aims to Build Healthful Workplace
By Mark Chediak
WASHINGTON POST
Commercial office buildings are usually all about square footage, parking lots and maybe some marble in the lobby. But developer Jeffrey S. Abramson says his new building in Rockville will also offer a terrace called a vastu and an interior open space called a brahmasthan.
Abramson, a partner with Tower Cos. of Bethesda, says these and other features will make his planned Tower II the world's largest office building that meets the Vedic standards promoted by the Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Like the Beatles decades ago, Abramson practices the maharishi's Transcendental Meditation. He said he learned about the healing benefits of Vedic architecture after moving into a home built on its principles of universal harmony and order. He said his goal with Tower II is not to proselytize but to offer tenants a more spiritually fulfilling and healthful workspace.
"We spend 90 percent of our time indoors, and therefore the built environment has the potential to help a person to succeed," Abramson said. "That's why I'm interested in Vedic architecture."
Abramson said the $72 million building also is to comply with environmental standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council. The 200,000-square-foot structure is to be built with nontoxic materials and rely on energy-efficient lighting and air conditioning. The indoor air is to be recycled and filtered every 55 minutes.
"People want a healthy and clean environment that they find stimulating to work in, and that's what we are building," said Abramson, 52, whose father founded the family-owned development company in 1947.
Construction is expected to begin this winter on the building at Wootton Parkway and Tower Oaks Boulevard near the Beltway and the Interstate 270 corridor. The site is next to the developer's Tower Building, which is already fully leased. That building has some environment-friendly features but not a Vedic design.
"All measurements of Tower II, interior and exterior, are proportionally designed to mirror the geometry, or architecture, of the universe," according to a brochure for the building.
The pamphlet says the main entrance is to face east, a central component of Vedic architecture that allows a structure "to capture the early morning sun for the greatest benefits to the health and the vitality of the occupants." A "mathematically determined vastu," or terrace, is to surround the building.
Inside, the center of the building is to have the brahmasthan, a "silent core or nucleus," outlined in marble on every floor.
Abramson's company is building Tower II in partnership with Lerner Enterprises, another Bethesda developer. Architecture firm Kishimoto, Gordon, Dalaya PC of McLean designed the building in consultation with Maharishi Global Construction LLC, a Vedic design firm based in Fairfield, Iowa, where hundreds of the maharishi's followers have settled.
Jonathan Lipman, chief architect at Maharishi Global Construction and the Vedic consultant on the Tower II project, said his firm has worked on designs for hundreds of homes and nearly a dozen office buildings based on a system the maharishi developed about 15 years ago. He said the system uses mathematical formulas drawn from "the eternal laws of nature and nature's architecture."
Abramson said Tower Cos. and Lerner Enterprises is to occupy one-third of the Vedic building. The remaining space has yet to be leased.
Next to the new office building, Tower plans to develop an eco-friendly hotel with a resort and spa featuring some Vedic elements.
Abramson's project is located in a hot spot, according to Catherine C. Jones, executive director at the D.C. office of Advantis, a tenant broker. "It's in a really good area between Bethesda and the I-270 corridor," said Jones, who said a lot of technology and life sciences firms are attracted to the area.
Other developers predict the Vedic building will generate some buzz. "This is not something everyone would do," said Stephen F. Lustgarten, executive vice president for Blake Real Estate Inc. of the District.
"If he happens to perform miracles over there," Lustgarten said of Abramson, "then we will have to turn around and follow the maharishi and build our buildings that way."
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